C is for cookie

Last night Jory expanded his culinary skills to baking. He wasn't interested in cutting the cookies out from the dough, but he sure enjoyed decorating them!




 

When he wanted an extra cookie before bedtime, we sang the Cookie Monster song instead. We'll see how long that satisfies him!

Trick or treat!

Jory's school has been preparing for Halloween for a week or so, including a "guess the weight" pumpkin game: (I can tell you that it is definitely harder to lift than Jory is)

On the big day, Amanda lent Jory her panda hat, which I coordinated with one of his Chinese outfits to make ... Kung Fu Panda!

At daycare, they took the kids on a parade around the city administration buildings, where Jory was overwhelmed by all the costumes and candy. As you can see, he had a good time:

More Paris photos!

Since our camera met an untimely death under the Zodiac Ceiling in the Louvre, it's been slow going getting together our vacation photos.

Here are a few more great pictures from our Paris trip! The bottom two photos are from the Chateau de Vincennes.

First trip abroad: Paris

We were in Paris last week, and while we'd hoped that it would be a great cultural experience for Jory, he had a different agenda. Here's an example:

Mommy: Jory, look! This is Notre Dame cathedral!

Jory: Wow! Look! Look at that! LOOK AT THAT GARBAGE TRUCK!!!

Mommy: Jory, do you want to go inside the church?

Jory: I want to go for a ride in the garbage truck! GARBAGE TRUCK!!!

So while we took Jory to lots of museums, he now has atypical experiences with the Louvre:

The Musee d'Orsay (especially the cafe):

And the Orangerie outside Place de la Concorde:

Predictably, a love affair blossomed between Jory and pain au chocolat:

Jory wasn't really fantastic in museums, as you might expect from a two-year-old. I spent a lot of time on the floor at the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay, playing with trains.

We did, however, have a spectacular experience the second time we went to the Louvre. I had Jory in the stroller and I was passing the Mona Lisa room, which is always a circus with about 200 tourists frantically trying to snap a picture of the painting from behind a series of velvet ropes.

I'd had no intention of going in (I don't even like that painting!), but then I realized that it was incumbent upon me as a mother to take my offspring to see the Mona Lisa. I was trying to edge him and his stroller into the very fringe of the crowd when a docent tapped me on the shoulder and motioned me into the handicapped viewing section - which is in front of all the other tourists and only about three feet from the painting!

I told Jory about the painting, and he blew kisses at her, and the docents all thought he was adorable. He won't remember the experience, I'm sure, but I definitely will!

Sleeping beauties

There's a lot that goes on in our house, basically all the time.

Here's how I found Jory sleeping the other night:

I'd gone into his room to get the trains out of his bed so he wouldn't roll onto them, but I wasn't able to pry the toys out of his grasp!

And this is why I'm up at night taking photos - nowhere for me to sleep!

These aren't the droids you're looking for

But they sure are cute!

Castle Air Museum

Over the holiday we visited the open-cockpit day at the Castle Air Museum out in Atwater. It's the site of a decommissioned air base, and air-history enthusiasts have gathered a remarkable variety of historical fighters, fuelers, and transporters.

Since Jory loves planes, we knew this would be a great visit. The only major problem was the sweltering heat - which is why we borrowed a hat for him.

Here's Jory with one of the quailailos, which looked remarkably unsafe:

And of course Jory and Daddy took a signature picture (Anika's enjoying herself too with some smurf-blue raspberry flavored kettle corn):

All in all we had a lot of fun!